Yearning for warmer winters, generational change, higher office or a stable living: Legislators cite myriad reasons for leaving their seats

Vermont’s Statehouse halls are slated to see another bout of turnover come January, though not as drastic as last election cycle .

For lawmakers vacating their seats, their reasons are many. Some are retiring after decades in service, but others decided to leave their posts after facing trying personal and financial circumstances.

During the 2022 election cycle, roughly one-third of House and Senate members opted to not seek reelection. When the new biennium began in January 2023, large swaths of each chamber were nearly unrecognizable.

This cycle won’t see such a dramatic change. As of this week, at least 36 House members did not file to run for reelection to their current seats by the Secretary of State’s Office’s deadline to appear on their respective primary ballots. (Independents and minor party candidates are not due to file until August.) There are 150 seats total in the chamber.

In the Senate, five senators who served this biennium — several of them institutions unto themselves, with decades of legislative experience — won’t be on the ballot this fall. A sixth, Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, registered to appear on Bennington County voters’ Democratic primary ballots, then died in June . That makes for one-fifth of the 30-member chamber.

For some outgoing members, to bow out of public service means retirement. After two decades in office, Sen. Jane Kitchel, D-Caledonia, is retiring to a post-service life of tending to her garden and, she hopes, going on a safari with her family. Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, said he wants to pick up his folk music again and complete his longtime goal of visiting all 48 contiguous United States. Sen. Bobby Starr, D-Orleans, and his wife yearn to travel “where it’s warmer in the winter,” he said upon his retirement announcement .

Rep. Butch Shaw, R-Pittsford, too, is opting to retire. In a phone call with VTDigger this week, he noted his age — nearly 77 years old  — and said simply that it’s “just time” to retire.

“I always knew that, every day, when I walked into the building, if I got a tingle in my spine and was saying to myself, ‘I can’t believe that people like me make laws,’ that would be my symbol that I should be there or I shouldn’t be there,” Shaw said. “And I still have that feeling absolutely when I walk into the building. I’m very excited to be there.

“But then, you know, you wake up one morning, and I said to myself, ‘I’m approaching 77 years old, and it’s just time to go home,’” Shaw concluded.

For others who are retiring, the question of whether to do so was existential. Rep. Peter Anthony, D-Barre City, told VTDigger that he had envisioned himself serving four complete terms in the House, like his former seatmate Rep. Tommy Walz, D-Barre City. He had more work he hoped to complete, especially on Vermont’s strained education financing structure in his post on the House Ways and Means Committee.

But closing out his third term this year, his calculus changed when Barre City Councilor Teddy Waszazak approached him, saying he would be interested in the seat if Anthony opted to retire. Anthony pointed to Waszazak and Walz’s replacement, Rep. Jonathan Williams, D-Barre City, as beacons for generational change in the Statehouse.

“Listen, the institution needs to get younger. It needs to be more gender balanced,” Anthony said. “I can’t help my gender, as it happens, but I can help the fact that I’m an 80-year-old running for reelection. And there are two good, younger fellows who want to go at it, who are smart, who are dedicated and who are savvy, and will do a good job for Barre.”

Some retirements caused a ripple effect down the ballot . Rep. Scott Beck, R-St. Johnsbury, is vacating his seat in the House to make a go at flipping Kitchel’s Senate seat red. Rep. Patrick Brennan, R-Colchester, is racing to do the same in Mazza’s Grand Isle district. Rep. Seth Bongartz, D-Manchester, is running for one of two open seats in Bennington County, vacated by Sears and Sen. Brian Campion, D-Bennington. Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury, is campaigning to fill the seat of Starr, a longtime Northeast Kingdom moderate.

Two other House members are vying for seats in the Senate currently occupied by incumbents. Rep. Chris Mattos, R-Milton, is challenging incumbent Sen. Irene Wrenner, D-Chittenden North, in the recently redrawn, purple Chittenden North district. Rep. Caleb Elder, D-Starksboro, is challenging incumbent Sens. Christopher Bray, D-Addison, and Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, for the Democratic nomination in Addison County. With their Senate challenges, Mattos and Elder leave their House seats behind.

Some legislators are leaving their posts to spend more time with family. The Brattleboro Reformer reported that Rep. Tristan Roberts, D-Halifax, is taking “a paternity leave from politics,” with a newborn due in August. Rep. Sara Coffey, D-Guilford, who chairs the House’s transportation committee, told the Brattleboro Reformer that she wants to spend more time with her mother and aunt in southern New England.

For others, the question of whether to run for reelection was dire. Rep. Melanie Carpenter, D-Hyde Park, wrote in an op-ed published by the News & Citizen that her decision not to run came after much deliberation.

“My family continues the work of rebuilding our farm, which was severely impacted by the flood, and I am needed at home,” she wrote, referring to widespread, catastrophic flooding which impacted Vermonters last year.

Carpenter, herself was appointed last year to replace Rep. Kate Donnally, D-Hyde Park, who resigned from her post in January 2023 . At the time, Donnally dubbed legislative service “an impossible juggling act.”

“It asks you to forgo money, stability of schedule, accessibility to family and more with little regard to the mental, emotional, and familial toll that these demands require,” Donnally wrote in a column last year, also published by the News & Citizen .

Donnally wasn’t alone in her assessment. In a Facebook post announcing his decision not to seek reelection after one term, Rep. Joseph Andriano, D-Orwell, wrote that, “Ever since I was younger it was my dream to be a state representative.”

What forced him out, though, were the finances. Despite numerous attempts at bills to raise their wages, Vermont legislators earn approximately $15,000 annually. While technically a part-time job, requiring attendance in Montpelier January through May, lawmakers have long said that the job demands off-session work, too, in the form of constituent services and summer study committees. Legislators also do not receive health insurance.

“I wish the financial realities were different,” Andriano wrote, “but no matter how I cut it, I can’t figure out a way to make it work for another two years.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Yearning for warmer winters, generational change, higher office or a stable living: Legislators cite myriad reasons for leaving their seats .